


Countdown

by Lalikaa



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Family Fluff, Flashbacks, Gen, Pre-Series, Sibling Love, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 14:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12655221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalikaa/pseuds/Lalikaa
Summary: 10-9-8-





	Countdown

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so apparently Matt’s age hasn’t been revealed in canon yet, so I’m gonna say he’s about 5-6 years older than Pidge, putting him at around 20 in the present time, which I think makes sense! Also, I have no idea when “Pidge” became a nickname, so Matt calls her Katie in this fic! Hope that’s chill with people!

Matt could hardly contain the butterflies in his stomach. His watch insisted that his good-byes to Mom and Katie had taken at least half an hour, but it had felt more like a couple minutes. 

Dad, who was sitting in the seat next to Matt and, ever perceptive, gave his hand a squeeze.

Matt hoped Shiro hadn’t seen. At 19, Matt didn’t want to seem like some scared little kid. Especially in front of someone as cool as Shiro.

He sat up a little straighter, shifting under the heavy seat belt buckles.

The countdown started.

**_10-9-8-_ **

 

“7 cups of sugar? _Really_?”  Matt asked.

“We’re quadrupling the recipe, sweetie.

“Qu-quad… rooping?” Matt tried.

Mom ruffled his hair.

“Say it like this: Qua-dru-pul-ling,” Mom said.

“Qua-doo-pul-ring,” Matt said.

“Well, close enough.”

Matt wasn’t quite sure what the word Mom had said meant, but what he did know was “7” meant a _lot_ sugar. He was turning 5 on Friday, and Mom had agreed to making his favorite, peanut butter cookies, for his birthday party. 

Then it dawned on him.

A lot of sugar meant a lot of cookies, right? _Right_?

“Mommy, does quad-rup-ul-ing mean more?”

“Yes, sweetie, it means four time as much.”

“But I’m turning 5!”

“You sure are. Can you get the peanut butter?”

“If I’m turning 5, why can’t we be making 5 times, Mommy?”

“Because 5 times would be a little too much.”

“Would not!”

“Go get the peanut butter, Matty.”

“Would not…” Matt grumbled, all of a sudden finding the whole situation unfair. He was turning 5, he would finally be big kid and go to Kindergarten and everything. He _so_ deserved 5 times.

When Matt returned from the pantry with the jar of peanut butter, Mom was pulling out the vanilla, salt, and baking… powder or soda, Matt could never remember.

“I got it!” Matt announced, holding up the jar.

“Thank yooou!” Mom sang. Then she added; “And you know, Matty, maybe we _will_ quintuple the recipe.”

“I don’t _want_ quin-tu-ble, I want 5!”

Mom laughed for some reason. Matt huffed. Grown-ups never understood how annoying it was to be laughed at.

“Honey, quintuple _means_ 5 times as much. But only if you’re willing to share more of your birthday cookies with me and your little sister,” Mom said, rubbing her tummy.

Matt immediately forgot about being annoyed. “Yay, 5 times, 5 times! I’ll share! I’ll share so many!”

“Ok, well, we’ll probably be baking all day, then,” Mom said, putting her hands on her hips.

“Let’s do iiiit!” Matt shouted excitedly.

As it turned out, it did take them almost all day. Matt had been the _best_ helper ever, and had even helped add number together; he could add numbers up to _100_. Despite not knowing what quadoople or quinuple meant, he really was good at math. But like Dad said, it’s ok to still be learning!

Measuring was Matt’s favorite thing to do, and Mom let him measure almost everything (except the rest of the flour, which wasn’t really fair, since he hadn’t dropped the whole bag of flour on _purpose_ or anything).

They had to make the cookies in _lots_ of batches, and to Matt’s delight, the cookies kept piling up.

After all, the warm, crumbly, and chewy goodness of a fresh-baked peanut butter cookie was the best taste in the whole world, almost-5-year-old Matt decided.

 

19-year-old Matt would _really_ miss Mom’s baking.

**_6-5-4-_ **

 

“3-2-1… BLASTOFF!” Matt shouted.

“Vrmmmbrmmvrmmmmbrmmm!” Katie helpfully added.

Matt and Katie had built an awesome spaceship out of an empty refrigerator box. Well, Matt had built it. Katie was only 3, so she had really only scribbled on the outside of the box with marker, then thrown a bunch of glitter on it. Though Matt had to admit, the glitter added depth. It reminded him of stardust (even though he knew stardust wasn’t a sparkly purple).

Matt, on the other hand, wanted their spaceship to be more detailed, so he had insisted on his parents helping him cut out pieces of cardboard from an old packing box and gluing them onto the main spaceship like fins, as well as cut out circles for windows. His dad had insisted that spaceships didn’t have open windows, so he had helped Matt duct-tape plastic wrap over the circular holes that had been cut out.

The painting had been done in the garage, and had taken a total of 3 days. The end result was awesome though, so the near week it had taken to build had been so worth it. The spaceship was painted green and blue. Matt had painted planets and solar systems on it for designs, and of course Katie’s purple glitter.  

After the spaceship had been finished, their parents had carried it to its permanent residence in the living room, where it had been for over a month now.

“ALIEN PLANET UP AHEAD!” Matt shouted.

“PLANET!” Katie shrieked, pointing out each one of the four windows in turn.

“It’s the first planet we’ve seen outside our Solar System,” Matt said. “We need to be careful!”

“Aliens are gonna be get us!” Katie reasoned.

“Right! So we gotta sneak past real quiet, Katie.”

“REAL QUIET.”

“No, really quiet. _Like this_ ,” Matt said, bringing his voice down to a whisper.

“ _Like this_ ,” Katie repeated.

“Ok, here we go,” Matt said, carefully picking up his lightsaber. 

Katie picked up her a foam sword, and somersaulted out of the spaceship after Matt.

Matt did a couple extra kick flips to assert himself as the older sibling, since Katie couldn’t do those yet. Sure enough, when she tried, she landed flat on her back.

“Look, a volcano!” Matt whispered excitedly, pointing at the tall navy blue couch in the living room. “The floor’s gonna be lava, so we have to run!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Katie yelled as she ran towards the couch.

“Katie, the aliens are gonna hear us!” Matt yelled, forgetting that he also supposed to be quiet.

“Aaaaaah!” Katie retorted as she climbed over the back of the couch, and flipped over it with a _fwump_.

Matt flipped over the couch after her, landing on the plush cream pillows. Luckily he hadn’t crushed his sister this time.  

“We gotta get going!” Matt yelled, giving up all hope for stealth. He threw a pillow the ground and jumped on it. “The floor is still lava!”

Unfortunately there were not enough pillows to save them.

“The lava is spreading! It’s evil lava!” Matt improvised.

“TAKE THAT EVIL LAVA,” Katie shrieked, slamming her foam sword against the carpet-lava.

“KATIE, NO!! YOU’VE AWAKENED THE EVIL ALIEN LAVA KING!”

“I FIGHT HIM NOW!” Katie said, ever ready to brawl.

“Noooo, his power is too much, I’m gackuglgukh-” Matt said, collapsing into the lava, hands clutched around his neck as he gasped for air.

“NOOO BROTHER!”

Matt stopped his fake-death to spring back up.

“Ok, pretend I’m the Evil Alien Lava King!” Matt told Katie, before dashing behind the couch (his Evil Lair). As if he needed to tell her. Katie's grip on her foam sword had tightened. She knew what was coming.

Once he was behind the couch (in his Evil Lair), Matt waited a few seconds to add to the climax to what was sure to be his best Evil Alien Lava King impression yet.

“LAVA KING I WILL BE KILL YOU!” Katie shouted, already on the offensive. 

“MUAHAHAHA!” Matt laughed from his Evil Lair in a terrifying, deep voice that he was sure would send chills down the spine of anyone. “I WILL KILL YOU FIRST, LIKE I DID YOUR BROTHER.”

Katie shrieked and catapulted off a nearby mountain (the armchair), foam sword in hand. Dang, she was getting really athletic.

Matt dodged in the nick of time, but not fast enough. Katie’s sword landed on his shoulder. He staggered backwards.

“No, it’s not possible…!” Lava King Matt gasped.

“I GOT YOU NOW LAVA KING! YOU GONNA DIE YOU MEANIE-FACE!” Katie lunged forward, but a quick sidestep was all Matt needed to evade her. He jumped over a puddle of lava (the side table) to retrieve a pillow.

“NOT IF I KILL YOU WITH THIS BOULDER FIRST!” Matt said, throwing the cushy boulder in Katie’s face, effectively knocking her over.

“ _Matt_! What did I say about throwing things at your sister?” Mom said, though she sounded more exasperated than angry, Matt could tell.

“He’s the Evil Lava King, Mommy!” Katie said in Matt’s defense.

“The Evil _Alien_ Lava King,” Matt corrected.

“Well, does the Evil Alien Lava KIng and his little sister want to join me to go pick up Daddy from the space station? His shuttle just landed!”

 “YEAH!” Matt and Katie yelled in unison, scrambling for the garage door, their game immediately put on-hold. Matt grabbed his lightsaber on the way out, though. Just in case.

“I can’t wait to go into space for real when I’m grown-up!” Matt announced from the front seat as Mom buckled Katie into her carseat.

“Me too, me too, I go into space too!” Katie chimed.

Mom finished buckling Katie and gave her a kiss on the forehead, then reached over the back of Matt’s seat to ruffle his hair. “I’m sure you both will, my loves.”

Matt grinned. He couldn’t _wait._

 

**_3-2-1_ **

Matt closed his eyes, and remembered his excitement that day at the prospect of exploring outer space, the excitement of every day of his life, counting down, all leading to this moment. The butterflies were still there, but they didn't feel as overwhelming as a few seconds ago. 

He would miss Mom and Katie a lot.

But this was his dream.

Besides, he would be back home soon!

**Author's Note:**

> :’)
> 
> Quick note! Grammar mistakes in the dialogue were intentional. I work with kids for a living, so I stayed true to how kid!Matt and kid!Katie would speak. c:
> 
> I also hope it's clear that Matt is just remembering glimpses during the countdown; I just expanded the "glimpses" so you would all get the full story that's already in Matt's memory! 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading this! <3


End file.
